Consultant, New Business Development
Rome, Italy
JOB DETAIL
The Organization
The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) deliver research-based solutions that harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to improve people’s lives. Alliance solutions address the global crises of malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation.
The Alliance works with local, national and multinational partners across Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and Africa, and with the public and private sectors. The Alliance is part of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future, dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources and ecosystem services.
With novel partnerships, the Alliance generates evidence and mainstreams innovations to transform food systems and landscapes so that they sustain the planet, drive prosperity, and nourish people in a climate crisis.
The Alliance is part of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future.
About the position
The Alliance of Bioversity-CIAT considers development of new revenue models as an essential requirement to be able to sustainably supply digital services that accelerate the transition to resilient food systems and rural livelihoods. More effective digital solutions to respond to climate, environmental and land use challenges will need to be commercially viable to achieve meaningful scale. We currently work with international agribusiness, donors and impact investors to help inform their investments to better reduce poverty, improve food and nutrition security and protect and regenerate natural resources and ecosystem services. However, impact is often limited by designing the business model to scale as an afterthought instead of as the starting point for the innovation.
We therefore seek a consultant who will work with us in business and service revenue development for two select digital service lines, namely ClimMob (https://climmob.net ) and the Climate Resilience Platform ( https://open.climate-resilient-agriculture.org/ ). The aim will be to work with both digital services over a period of 6 months, to establish the fundamentals of the service including costs, sources of revenue, intellectual property rights (software licenses) and governance structures suited for innovate public goods that are simultaneously open access and financially self-sustaining.
The ideal candidate will be a seasoned expert with direct experience building or advising many early-stage businesses.
Responsibilities
- Partnership Assessment: Assess current and potential partners and conduct research to evaluate preferred commercial partnership.
- IP and Governance: Design of IP and governance structures to ensure open access to public goods while achieving financial sustainability, in coordination with the Alliance Bioversity-CIAT IP group.
- Determine Market Size: Determine potential market size for different client segments of the two services.
- Business Model Design: Architect and describe viable digital business models for the two services.
- Assumption Validation: Rigorously test and adjust key business model assumptions, ensuring they resonate with potential investors or donors. This includes elements like value proposition, price structure and client willingness to pay, operational costs, and governance structures.
- Go-to-Market Strategy: Design a launch/marketing strategy for the two selected services, with the aim to attract new users and convert current trial users into loyal paying customers.
- Additional Investment Strategy: Design and validate a strategy for the two services to attract future (social, corporate, governmental) investors.
Requirements
Essential Requirements
- Previous professional work experience (minimum 10 years) in business development for open-source/public innovations, revenue model development, commercial strategy, or entrepreneurship, preferably associated with digital solutions, innovative products, or the agriculture sector.
- Fluency in both written and oral English is essential.
- A proven track record of developing and implementing revenue models for B2B services on an international scale.
- Demonstrated business acumen in taking innovative prototypes from design to implementation and scaling for practical and impactful application.
- Ability and experience in understanding complex technical issues and conveying them clearly in technical concepts or practical application formats to diverse audiences from different backgrounds.
- Empathetic listener accustomed to working with and incorporating diverse perspectives, able to distill new insights and knowledge from unexpected sources.
- Strong work ethic and commitment to uncompromising standards of professionalism.
- Passionate about the position’s objective: creating a positive impact for vulnerable communities through research advances.
- Ability to work with ambiguity and take ownership of deliverables and manage multiple concurrent projects independently.
- Strong interest in new technology and trends, especially in sustainable agriculture, with the ability to relate concepts to practical application.
Desirable Requirements
- Knowledge and experience with technology licensing process.
- Experience in environment or agriculture sectors.
- Working knowledge of technical aspects (e.g. product design specification, configuration, integration), common challenges faced in product development and deployment, as well as possible solutions.
- Experience working with web developers, UI UX designers to create prototypes and products.
Benefits
Terms of employment
This is a remote, 6-month international consultancy opportunity, renewable based on extended needs and requirements. The total amount of the consultancy will be USD 30,000, to be paid within 6 months of the contract’s signature. All consultancy fees and conditions will be administered in line with the Alliance approved policy for consultants.
Applications
Please apply online through the website (https://alliancebioversityciat.org/careers ) no later than 5 July 2024, attaching the following:
- A detailed curriculum vitae (CV) (using the candidate’s last name, first name for ease of sorting).
- In the CV, including the names and email addresses of three professional referees who have worked with you and are knowledgeable about your skills and professional abilities.
- A technical proposal consisting of a maximum of two pages, describing the overall approach with key steps, information collected and analyzed in each step, and short descriptions of the resulting deliverables.
- Proposed consultancy fees for the period, indicated in daily USD.
Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Closing date for applications: 5 July 2024
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